Australian man accused of political interference deported from PNG

Updated
November 08, 2013 21:00:00

The government of PNG has deported an Australian man it accuses of interfering in local politics. Mark Davis was picked up by fraud squad officers in Port Moresby hours before being put on a plane to Cairns.

PETER LLOYD: The government of PNG has deported an Australian man it accuses of interfering in local politics.

Mark Davis was picked up by fraud squad officers in Port Moresby a day ago, before being put on a plane to Cairns.

PNG correspondent Liam Fox.

LIAM FOX: Mark Davis first came to Papua New Guinea in the 1970s and has been working here on an off ever since.

He knows well that it can be an unpredictable place, but even still, what happened yesterday came as a shock.

MARK DAVIS: One of the policemen had a pump-action shotgun, the other one had an M-16 carbine, you're never at ease when that's... your circumstances.

LIAM FOX: Yesterday he was attending what he thought was a meeting with an official at the Department of Commerce and Industry in Port Moresby.

But when he arrived, he was arrested by heavily armed policemen and detectives from the fraud squad.

MARK DAVIS: I was read my rights, they confiscated my phone and my keys, we went for a bit of drive around town which lasted from 11 o'clock til about three o'clock in the afternoon when I was put onto a plane to Brisbane.

LIAM FOX: During the drive, Mr Davis says he was handed a deportation order signed by the immigration minister, cancelling his work permit and work visa.

MARK DAVIS: Basically said I was in the country unlawfully but nobody at any time ever explained to me or gave me any other reasons why I was being deported.

LIAM FOX: Mr Davis is the media and communications director at the charitable trust PNG Sustainable Development Program, or PNGSDP. It's currently involved in a bitter struggle with the PNG government.

The government's trying to forcibly take control of the trust and its $1.5 billion worth of assets, even though it's registered as a not-for-profit company in Singapore.

PNGSDP's chairman Sir Mekere Morauta and the prime minister Peter O'Neill have been engaged in a series of acrimonious exchanges for several months.

Several of those exchanges have come in the form of press releases issued by Mark Davis. He says he has no doubt that's why he's been kicked out of the country.

MARK DAVIS: That's clearly the motivation. In a way I expected this to happen and I had sort of made basic arrangements with a removalist company and some airline tickets and what have you but I was just a little be too late.

RIMBINK PATO: He was issuing media statements on behalf of the PNG Sustainable Development which we considered that he was not acting in the best interests of our country.

LIAM FOX: He wasn't making the statements, he's simply issuing statements on behalf of PNGSDP, which is his job to do.

RIMBINK PATO: You know that advising (inaudible) he was the acting manager, he was issuing them directly from his office. Not only that, there were allegations that he was in possession of pornographic material.

Mr Davis says he was just doing his job and describes the allegation that he possessed pornographic material as laughable. He says his deportation is not a good look for the PNG government.

MARK DAVIS: This is a government that does not conform to the norms of international behaviour, it doesn't respect its legal obligations. All these things taken together with political deportation I think sends a very, very serious message to Australia and the rest of the world.